Holiday Homebuyers Head For Gower Bargains

With fine beaches and stunning countryside, the coastline of Wales offers better value than Devon and Cornwall

By Francesca SteeleOriginally published on June 12, 2015|The Times (UK)|

Forget Devon and Cornwall — if you’re looking for a bargain, that is. Second-homebuyers in the know have, for some years, been heading to the Gower Peninsula. Rhossili, on its southwestern tip, is 18 miles along the coast from Swansea, in south Wales.

Gower — the first region in Britain to be designated an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), in 1956 — is all coastal paths winding over ancient sandstone crags, award-winning beaches and, in summer, plenty of cyclists, surfers and avid walkers soaking it all up. Inland, there are miles of beautiful rolling countryside, with prime properties boasting sea views on the south side, and the more modestly priced estuary homes near the reedbed and marshes of the River Loughor farther north.

It’s not exactly cheap. Indeed, Gower recently topped a list compiled by Knight Frank showing how much of a premium house prices in AONBs command over prices in the county as a whole. In the case of Gower, the premium is 125 per cent.

However, that statistic says more about the relative value of property in West Glamorgan than it does about high prices in this popular little nook. The average house price in Gower is £277,372, according to Knight Frank, compared with £344,634 in south Devon and £380,000 in Newquay, Cornwall.

The beach and the estuary, which are five miles apart, have a very different feel from one another, although both are quieter and more intimate than their West Country rivals and attract outsiders in equal measure. Dan Rees, the Savills agent, estimates that 90 per cent of the homes sold by the agency on the Gower are to people from elsewhere. They tend to be people who are retiring, who like the calm by the river, or families and second-homeowners, who head for the beach at places such as Oxwich, Port Eynon and Horton: all small, picturesque villages popular with swimmers, divers and fish and chip fans. Griddled bacon with fresh cockles (farmed at the nearby estuary village of Llanmorlais) is a traditional breakfast dish that visitors rave about.

Quicker access to the M4 from Swansea here is a perk that earns homes on the southern side of Gower a small premium over their estuary counterparts. Here, you might pick up a second home with two or three bedrooms and sea views for £350,000 to £500,000. Simpsons, a local estate agency, recently sold a two-bedroom bungalow “with views straight out over the sea” for £350,000. The same agency is selling a three-bedroom home for £499,950; it is half a mile from the breathtaking dunes of Rhossili Bay, which was last year voted the best beach in the UK by Tripadvisor.

The upper end of the market tends to be family homes for just under £1 million — anything above that tends not to be sold very quickly. Savills and Gower Coast Properties are selling Craig Y Don, a six-bedroom, recently renovated mansion with private beach access, uninterrupted beach views and landscaped gardens for £1,999,500 — but it has been on the market for more than a year. “Typical family homes with a sea view range from £500,000 to £750,000 or £1 million. Craig Y Don is definitely a one-off, both in terms of design and price,” says Rees.

It’s important to remember, he says, that the property market in Wales has taken longer to recover from the recession than elsewhere in the UK. House prices in Wales grew by 0.3 per cent last year, according to the Land Registry — the slowest growth rate in the country, although in the northeast prices fell by 0.6 per cent. By contrast, house prices rose by 5.1 per cent on average across England and Wales last year.

In the past five or six years, the area has seen a big change, according to Mick Simpson, of the Simpsons agency. “In that time we’ve definitely started selling more homes to second-homebuyers than to people who live in them full time. They tend to be from Bristol, Newport or Cardiff because it’s so accessible from there. I have noticed that when I sell to people from further afield, Buckinghamshire or London, for example, I’ll usually get a phone call within about four or five years saying they are putting the house up for sale again because they don’t use it enough.”

However, the number of visitors from southeast England is growing, according to agents. In July and August the roads can become a little congested — especially to and from Mumbles, the upmarket “fishing village” in Swansea Bay where the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband, Michael Douglas — reunited after a separation last year — own a £2 million pad.

Prices in Mumbles, and in the nearby Caswell and Langland Bays, tend to be pricier than farther west along the coast. Here, large family homes with sea views frequently sell for £1 million or more. Swansea, too, has become more expensive. The promotion of Swansea City football team into the Premier League four years ago has also given the area, and its housing market, a bit of a boost, according to local agents. In some locations, rents have tripled to more than £3,000 a month. Agents say that several owners of £1 million-plus properties have moved out and let their homes in recent months to take advantage of the greater values — and that a boost in house sales could follow.